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How Nestle Rolls With Facebook's Algorithm Changes

In preparation for the upcoming Mashies awards, we are running a series of articles looking at the changing face of marketing. More information on the Mashies can be found here.

Since even Facebook has acknowledged that it is harder to reach consumers with organic posts than it used to be, you might think marketers have a legitimate cause for complaint.

Meghaan Blauvelt, a top marketer at Nestle, begs to differ. Blauvelt says everyone's posts are getting less traction than they used to, but marketers just have to accept that and move on.

She doesn't think, as some others do, that Facebook is deliberately burying marketers' status updates to force brands to buy ads. Instead, she believes more people and more marketers are posting so there are fewer opportunities for everyone.

"A good analogy are print ads," she says. "It used to be you could get one for really cheap, but at some point you run out of ad space. At some point the ads need to get better and you're going to have to start paying."

Not everyone is as sanguine as Blauvelt. A Forrester Research survey last year found marketers were more dissatisfied with Facebook than any other marketing vehicle. That was when the average post was seen by 16% of fans. Now the figure is more like 6%.

"Brands have to adjust to the new Facebook landscape," says Marshall Manson, EAME Managing Director for Social@Ogilvy. Manson says the Facebook algorithm gives greater emphasis to editorial- or editorial-like posts. "The only way to get in the News Feed is by using editorial content that's timely, purposeful and narrative-driven," he says.

Nate Elliott, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, agrees that brands have no choice now but to accept their declining reach on Facebook or leave. However, he says brands are getting a raw deal. "You can't fight it. This is reality," he says. "It's fair for brands to feel burned. It's fair for brands to mistrust Facebook. It's fair for them to look elsewhere and aggressively focus their efforts where they have more control over the user experience."

Blauvelt has done none of those things. Instead, she has focused on making all of Nestle's social media communications as story-like as possible. It's a cliche in marketing circles that the work is about telling stories rather than writing ad copy, but Blauvelt's definition of storytelling is synonymous with cohesion: Posts shouldn't be one-offs but instead tie into a narrative." I think it’s an evolving philosophy — it’s taking the previous idea of a big promotional push and translating that to the 'always on' nature of social media," she says.

As an example, Blauvelt pointed to Nestle's Halloween push for its Drumstick ice cream cone product. "It sounds really lame," she says. "We always did a Halloween post, just like every other brand in the world." The brand started the drumbeat a week ahead of time, though, and featured images of Drumsticks decked out in Halloween costumes:

While Nestle's is a legitimate attempt to adapt to Facebook's algorithm, which favors media stories, not everyone has taken the high road. This ad from LowerMyBills, for instance, is disguised as a fake news story:

Image: Twitter

A Facebook rep says "We are aware of these ads, they are against our policy and we are working to remove them from the system. Ads that intentionally mislead users are against policy."

Creative approach aside, Nestle has also taken advantage of Facebook's enhanced targeting abilities. Nestle partner SocialCode has given Mashable a hypothetical example of how a Facebook campaign for a fake product called Summertime Sweets might work.

As the infographic below notes, Facebook can use third-party data from partners Datalogix to find purchasers of premium ice cream. The company can then drill down to find Facebook users who have used the terms "love ice cream." From there, the company uses predictive software and content pre-testing (unpublished Page posts delivered to test groups) to find creative that clicks.

The predictive software purports to give an accurate assessment about how a post might perform. As Max Kalehoff, SVP of marketing at SocialCode, has previously explained, engagement for posts shouldn't be a goal in itself. Instead, engagement is an effective bellwether for the virality of a given posts. That is, if you test a post and it gets a better-than-average amount of engagement, it will probably reach more people than an average post and should get the maximum amount of spending behind it.

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is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable's record 42 million unique visitors worldwide and 21 million social media followers are one of the most influential and engaged online communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.